sound for you and me. This song originated in oral tradition, and there are many versions of the lyrics. It begins with the refrain, "Michael, row the boat ashore, Hallelujah." The lyrics describe crossing the River Jordan, as in these lines from Pete Seeger's version: Jordan's river is deep and wide, hallelujah. Meet my mother on the other side, hallelujah. Jordan's river is chilly and cold, hallelujah. Chills the body, but not the soul, hallelujah. The River Jordan was where Jesus was baptised and can be viewed as a metaphor for deliverance and salvation, but also as the boundary of the Promised Land, death, and the transition to Heaven. According to William Francis Allen, the song refers to the Archangel Michael. In the Roman Catholic interpretation of Christian tradition, Michael is often regarded as a psychopomp or conductor of the souls of the dead. The spiritual was also recorded on Johns Island during the 1960s by American folk musician and musicologist Guy Carawan and his wife, Candie Carawan. Janie Hunter, former singer of the Moving Star Hall singers, noted that her father, son of former slaves, would sing the spiritual when he rowed his boat back to the shore after catching fish. Row, Michael, Row, Hallelujah, Row, Michael, Row, Hallelujah, Row the boat ashore, Hallelujah, See how we (do) the row, Hallelujah, See how we the row, Hallelujah, Let me tries me chance, Hallelujah, Let me tries me chance, Hallelujah, Jump in the jolly boat, Hallelujah, Jump in the jolly boat, Hallelujah, Just row Michael, row, Hallelujah, Row the boat ashore, Hallelujah. (repeated thus until end) A similar version was collected by Guy Carawan on an unspecified Sea Island. :Let me try my chance, Hallelujah, Let me try my chance, Hallelujah, Sister Mary try her chance, Hallelujah, Sister Mary try her chance, Hallelujah, Just let me try my chance, Hallelujah, Just let me try my chance, Hallelujah, Michael row your boat ashore, Hallelujah, Michael row your boat ashore, Hallelujah, Sister Mary row your boat, Hallelujah, Sister Mary row your boat, Hallelujah, Everybody try a chance, Hallelujah Everybody try a chance, Hallelujah Oh just let me try my chance, Hallelujah Oh just let me try my chance, Hallelujah (repeated thus until end) Following the September 1961 murder of local NAACP charter member Herbert Lee in Amite County, Mississippi, – the same month that the Highwaymen's arrangement reached No. 1 on the